UAB Magazine Online Features

Student Film Preserves a Unique Birmingham Story

By Clair McLafferty

Clarence Lockett (photo: Razaq Kadri)Clarence Lockett started out as a theatre student focusing on screenwriting. But it was a true-life story that pulled him into filmmaking and changed his college and career goals.

He has always been a good storyteller, he says, and naturally took to screenwriting, but after transferring to UAB from Miles College, he began taking filmmaking classes in UAB’s College of Arts and Sciences to try to capture real stories.

“Films can ignite discussion,” says Lockett, who graduated in December 2013 with a degree in Film and Media Studies. “They may not change things immediately, but they can get people on the paths to helping in a positive way.”

Unique UAB Programs Prepare Students for Hot Careers

By Tara Hulen

Tiffany Holloway found her niche in a sweet spot between cells and sales. As a high school student, she explored materials sciences, biology, and other disciplines in a program run by UAB's Center for Community OutReach Development. For a career, however, she wanted to balance the challenge of science with an outlet for her outgoing personality. "I was looking for something that involves people and problem solving," says Holloway.

Her search led to just one place: UAB, the only university in Alabama—and one of just two in the Southeast—offering an industrial distribution program. In addition to being unique, the program is also the entryway into a booming field. Holloway is gaining a blend of business and engineering expertise that will help the UAB junior enter a $4 trillion field with plentiful job opportunities.

Industrial distribution is one of several UAB undergraduate programs that are packed with potential—and which can't be found anywhere else in Alabama. Take a closer look at five:

Blazer Juggles Basketball, Graduate School

By Grant Martin

Karl MotonIn the final season of his career, UAB basketball player Karl Moton Jr. earned an athletic scholarship, a bachelor's degree, and a postgraduate scholarship to study exercise science at the UAB School of Education. He was honored in the Blazers' final home game of the 2012-2013 season as one of three departing seniors. The easy thing to do would be to accept the applause and say goodbye to basketball—to concentrate on his graduate degree and a future career in physical therapy. But those who have followed Moton's career already know that he doesn't do things the easy way.

After spending most of his time at UAB as a non-scholarship role player, Moton decided to resurrect his basketball career as a graduate student. With one year of eligibility remaining, Moton has laced up for a final season, rejoining the Blazers as a fifth-year walk-on, bringing some much-needed maturity to a team that was big on talent but short on experience.

"We try to recruit guys who have the whole package, and Karl is that whole package," says head coach Jerod Haase. "He is a great person, a great student, a great teammate—and anyone who knows him knows that he loves UAB and loves the program."

Meet Students, Faculty Featured in New UAB Promos

By Matt Windsor

What do you want to be? What do you want to change today? That’s the call to action delivered by UAB faculty and students in two new 30-second advertisements focused on student recruitment (click here to watch) and philanthropic support for the university (above). The ads mark the second phase in the university’s branding campaign, “Knowledge that will change your world,” and the launch of The Campaign for UAB: Give Something, Change Everything, the university's largest-ever fundraising campaign.

Once the cameras finished rolling, UAB Magazine talked with several participants in the new commercials to learn the stories behind their star turns. (Read how music student Kevin Peek wrote the music for these commercials in this related story.)

Olaf Kutsch, Ph.D.

Many scientists struggle to explain their work in layman’s terms. Olaf Kutsch can accomplish the task in three words: cure HIV-1 infection. “We are trying to identify means to eradicate the virus from infected patients,” Kutsch says.

Antiretroviral medicines block the production of HIV-1 in the body, but reservoirs of the virus live on in immune cells known as memory T cells. To create a cure, scientists must find a signal that can reactivate these dormant viruses and then destroy the infected cells. Kutsch’s laboratory is trying to discover drugs that may be able to provide that signal.

“The most exciting part of my research program is that it gives me the possibility—hopefully one day in the near future—to make a difference for many people," Kutsch says. "Finding a cure for HIV-1 infection would end the hardship for many affected individuals and families.”